Leather Cutting and CO2 Lasers - xTool P2

[@etchmfg]

Great vid! Some tips that I've learned the hard way: - You can buy 4-6in masking tape to save some masking time. I've tried medium-tak "maskng paper" and it does not stick to the leather at all. - I run the tape beyond the endges to hold down the leather a bit (it even works somewhat on honeycomb). This is usually enough to save most of the sheet if there is piece that curls up and causes a minor crash (normally, it would move it easily and ruin your day. It's also helpful if a piece doesn't cut all the way through for some reason and you want to run another pass on it (I try to remove the individual pieces from the sheet vs. picking up the whole sheet for this reason). - Veg tan is the easiest to cut of all the varieties I've tried. Chrome tanned, buffalo, and very thick leather do well with multiple cut passes vs. a single, high-powered, pass as it can heat up the leather causing it to shrink (disaster!). On my 70w CO2, I use 4-5 passes at 60mm/sec & 20% power for 5oz chrome tanned leather. - I use a nylon bristled brush (the one in this HF set is perfect www.harborfreight.com/detail-brush-set-6-piece-69526.html ) to brush away the ash from the edges. - Keep the masking on until you have all the ash cleaned up--it stains the surface and is hard to get off without Happy lasering!

[@RichardThompsonCA]

If you don't want to sand off the char around the edges try this: Paint the back of the leather with clear acrylic and let dry, this will seal it. Cover the front with Vvivid blue stencil vinyl or similar product, this will seal the top (this won't work on the back because of how rough it is). Laser your leather. Before you remove the vinyl, swirl the pieces in a tray of standard bleach for about 10-20 seconds. This will dissolve all the charring. Rinse immediately with clean water, or neutralize in vinegar. Then remove your vinyl. If you don't protect the rest of the leather the bleach will destroy it in only a few seconds, it's very aggressive. This technique will also allow you to get into any small holes. I make leather hat patches and if you don't get the soot out from the thread holes it will transfer to the thread and then to the hat, making a mess of everything.

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Huh, I might have to try that. Or, I can have HER try that ;-)

[@bacon_sammich2845]

The isopod is awesome!

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Yeah, it really is.

[@bami2]

11:45 I think it's because of the tanning agents used in producing leather, burning (or cutting it with a laser) releases all kind of fun stuff like chromium and bromide. As long as your ventilation is setup correctly it shouldn't be a real problem. Nice result though, would be great if you could later upload a small video on the finished piece! Thank you for the upload, was really interesting!

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Eh, you're burning flesh. It smells like burning flesh, even though I don't know what that smells like. My animal brain says 'that's burning flesh'.

[@bami2]

@@RobertCowanDIY rip&tear, until it is done

[@vogelindustries]

Really intresting video. This may be a more craft question for your wife, Why did you decide not to laser cut all the thread holes?

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Great question! We opted to not cut the holes because she was planning on using white thread/cording. The charring from cutting would discolor the material. So she decided to just mark the holes and will use an arbor press to punch them instead.

[@hitf5]

Awesome! Face hugger mask 🤨 and OMG that purse! The stronger air assist will definitely help with charring and the stronger exhaust fan will also help venting outdoors. I don't have an xTool, and I went with an aftermarket air assist setup that works extremely well. And the exhaust is an in-line fan mounted on the wall just next to the exterior exhaust vent. It helps tremendously with the leather cutting. Just getting rid of the HEPA filter dramatically increases the airflow. For residual smoke that escapes the exhaust airflow, I installed an auxiliary exhaust fan in the top of the wall of the shop and turn it on whenever I'm cutting - helps de-stinkify a lot and quickly too. I don't have a camera setup in my cutter and am wondering about the accuracy? Is it accurate enough to position small parts, like for example a coin? That software conversion is tedious. Too bad the designer does not provide a vector file. Maybe they can clean up their PDF drawings so you don't have to spend so long doing it yourself. And...I finally got the Prusa HT90 and it's nice. Hit me up if you have questions.

[@GarethLewin]

Great video. I'm so close to getting a P2, I've had it in the cart a few times, this has pushed me closer. I wonder what other projects I could find on Etsy, leather seems like a lot of work and I'd like to find stuff more for a noob like me.

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Projects are supposed to be a lot of work! There are a TON of things you can do. Go to any farmer's market or craft fair and just look around at all the laser cut stuff. You can engrave just about anything, cut out earrings, bookmarks, etc, etc.

[@GarethLewin]

@@RobertCowanDIY Yeah, sorry I meant that leather seems like a lot of work for my first project :) But yeah, exactly. I have been at tons of farmers markets lately and thought "Hey, I could make that!".

[@nico8273]

Sorry if you already mentioned but I wasn't able to watch the full video. What are your thoughts regarding this type of machines propietary software? It's known that brand lasers such as xtool and trotec do have a great customer service but im wondering in the long run how is it going to turn out. I've seen lots of old-ish co2 lasers for sale that are software-locked and thereby require a change of driver's board. Unlike other chinese rebrands such as omtech

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Their own software is far better than a lot of the third party stuff. It's really a game-changer. That being said, the xTool also works with Lightburn, so you wouldn't be locked out if the company goes under. It's not the only control software that can be used, which is great.

[@ManIkWeet]

PDF files often already have vector graphics inside, you might be losing that information when converting to an image! Have you tried converting the PDF files to some vector format, like DWG or SVG? Might save you some trouble tracing the images again :)

[@RobertCowanDIY]

I have, these PDFs had images in them, not anything remotely like a vector. I don't want to show it because it's not mine to show, but they look 'drawn'.

[@ManIkWeet]

@@RobertCowanDIY Fair enough, don't know what kind of software they used to make the PDFs. A good way to check is to zoom in really far, if it stays sharp then it's likely vector (this is for anyone reading the comment) :)

[@RobertCowanDIY]

@@ManIkWeet Yeah, it is absolutely NOT a vector.

[@ThatRobHuman]

a question and a heads up if you don't mind: - you said cut was 40%; what's the wattage of your laser; ie: 40% of what? at least in vague terms. - you can get 12" wide rolls of masking tape. If you grab em, I would go with the blue tape rather than the beige: every roll of beige I've ever gotten has a propensity to stick to itself and makes unrolling it a pain. the blue stuff is a dream.

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Good question, the P2 is a 55W machine. Each laser will be very different though, they're not linear. 40% of 55W isn't necessarily '22W' of power. So if you're using a different laser, some adjusting might be necessary. I actually have a full selection of masking tape, I really like frog tape and I have really wide versions of it, my wife just beat me to it! But you're right, not all masking tape is created equally.

[@ThatRobHuman]

@@RobertCowanDIY good point on the linearity (or lack thereof); still: for ballpark purposes, now I know I should probably not start at 40% on my 100W (I've not tried leather yet) Thanks for the ballpark. I should know better about you knowing about the wide tape :P

[@JonathanRansom]

Gotta love the smell of burning flesh! Haha

[@Sillyzombie666]

i still want a laser but the biggest purchase i've made besides my car and a mattress was a bambu lab p1s that i just got with ams so sadly its just out of my price range

[@hitf5]

If you start with a K40 laser, you can probably find one for $300 if you shop around. Then you can get started with it and build up from there.

[@SarahKchannel]

I have a fun C02 engraving story. In about 2011 I bought my first CO2 80W laser machine. A friend of mine was in charge of bidding for the FIFA World Cup 2022, that was supposed to get presented to the Emir (Ruler of Qatar), in a leather binder. We had 1 leather binder - the one and only. It was nerve wrecking to find the settings without testing it on the final object. A day after that engraved leather binder with the FIFA World Cup Logo, was presented to the Emir, to get his endorsement to bid for the Word Cup. So I ended up engraving the first official document binder made from leather on a CO2 laser.

[@Roobotics]

It's hard to take stories like this at face value, coming from a channel that suddenly now uploads AI generated and undisclosed as such, conversations about blockchain etc. "Chat GPT, write me a memorable story about laser engraving that helps drive engagement"

[@SarahKchannel]

@ Sure, just because somebody knows how to use use tools, makes them con artists - the same way snarky comments makes you a troll ?

[@Roobotics]

@@SarahKchannel It's more about using 'tools' to pump out content and deceiving others of their origins or authenticity, and that translating to all other areas of interactions. But sure go with troll I guess.